December 2009

Openness promotes accountability by enabling journalists, researchers, government officials, and the public to scrutinize, question, and ultimately improve how government works. But, as with many aspects of Democracy, openness must evolve. The Progress Report on Open Government to the American People describes how the Administration is doing just that. Recently, for example, the Obama Administration began to publish online the names of everyone who visits the White House offices; provide online access to White House staff financial reports and salaries; disclose and limit lobbyist contacts; publish the membership of Federal advisory committees in downloadable form; and create unprecedented ways to track how the government spends taxpayer dollars. Advancing that trend, yesterday the White House released an historic Directive requiring all agencies to adopt aggressive open government policies that will further promote the principles of transparency, participation and collaboration. This new degree of openness is enabled in part by 21st century technology, which makes it possible for government to open its doors and databases more than ever before. From online listening tours and chats to web-based brainstorming by government officials with the American public, the White House and federal agencies are opening up the way they work to improve accountability in government and deepen our democracy. But creating an open government - one that is committed to transparency and civic engagement - does more than promote accountability. Working in the open fosters collaboration between government, private industry, and the public to improve the lives of Americans in their communities.
[Norm Eisen is Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform. Beth Noveck is United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer and Director of the White House Open Government Initiative.]

In documents circulating among federal agencies and released to the public on Tuesday, the Office of Management and Budget has laid out plans to move Data.gov out of "beta" phase and into "government-wide execution," as federal CIO Vivek Kundra put it in an interview last week. Released at the same time as the Obama administration's wider Open Government Directive, a memo and draft concept-of-operations document encourage agencies to post more data on Data.gov, with an eye toward ensuring data is machine-readable, high-quality, and useful while also protecting privacy and security interests. "Our key principles focus on making sure that we democratize as much data as possible and that that data is targeted towards high-value datasets," Kundra said. The White House has repeatedly held out the government data portal as a hallmark of its open government strategy. Until now, though, while broadly written policy missives from President Obama and the Office of Management and Budget have encouraged federal agencies to be more open, there's been little formal guidance on exactly how federal agencies should use Data DOT gov as a forum for their transparency. In many ways, it shows.

Speaking at the Brookings Institution Tuesday on jobs creation and economic development, President Barack Obama indicated the government will make additional efforts in broadband infrastructure. He proposed a boost in investment in the nation's infrastructure beyond what was included in the Recovery Act, to continue modernizing communications networks. Even though Recovery Act broadband network projects will not be ramping up for a couple of months, the President there are many more worthy projects than there were dollars to fund them. He said "the need for jobs will also last beyond next year and the benefits of these investments will last years beyond that. So adding to this initiative to rebuild America's infrastructure is the right thing to do." The White House indicated support for merit-based infrastructure investment that leverages federal dollars. The Administration supports financing infrastructure investments in new ways, allowing projects to be selected on merit and leveraging money with a combination of grants and loans.

Julius Genachowski's career stop as a broadcast executive and as an advocate for media ownership deregulation a decade ago suggests that he might consider an additional measure of relief. But no one is counting on it. In fact, the consensus among broadcasters and others interested in the issue is that the Federal Communications Commission is unlikely to provide any relief anytime soon, despite the congressionally mandated proceeding. Even if he were so inclined, broadcast lobbyists and lawyers say, it would be tough for FCC Chairman Genachowski to toss out structural media regulations strongly supported by congressional Democrats and liberal advocacy groups. Supporters of ownership restrictions are not taking Genachowski for granted. "I don't think there is any predisposition on the part of the chairman and his circle with respect to these ownership issues," says Andy Schwartzman of the Media Access Project. "I accept that we are going to have to convince Julius Genachowski that we're right in saying that the commission should not be relaxing these," Schwartzman says. "We're treating this as a jump ball."